They say that the Melbourne Cup is the race that stops the nation, but two heavyweight title bouts in the 1970s involving Muhammad Ali stopped the world.
On October 30, 1974 Ali fought George Foreman in Zaire, in ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’.
In 1975, Ali fought Smokin’ Joe Frazier in the Philippines, in ‘The Thrilla in Manila’.
Roarers will have to be in their 50s to have seen those two epic fights that will live in the sands of time.
The ‘Rumble’ was bizarre on three counts. It was the first promotion by Don King of the frizzy hair, as though he’d jammed his fingers in the power point. A three-day non-stop music festival was the lead-in to the fight, and it was fought at 3am local time to catch prime time in the Eastern Zone of the USA at 10pm.
It more than lived up to expectations.
Foreman (25) looked every inch a world champion, taking on Ali (then 32) and not the Ali of old. Foreman’s record was 40-0 with 37 knockouts, Ali 44-2, with 31 KOs. They both stood 191 cm – Foreman tipped the scales at 100kgs, Ali 98.
Amid all the hype, Ali found his best form, he wanted to prove to himself he was still ‘The Greatest’ against his unbeaten opponent. He proved it beyond doubt.
He kept picking off Foreman with deadly accurate punching, it was Ali at his clinical best. The constant peppering tired Foreman, who lost his proven power and precision, the result was inevitable.
Ali knocked Foreman out 2 minutes and 58 seconds into the eighth round. It was arguably Ali’s finest performance. Scribes were quick to rate the fight the greatest event of the 20th century. Few could, or even wanted to argue.
On October 1, 1975, the Ali-Frazier fight was just as epic. The Thrilla in Manila was coined by Ali in the lead-up, when Ali called Frazier a “gorilla”.
In one of his countless quotes, Ali predicted the fight would be, “A killa, and a thrilla, and a chilla, when I get the Gorilla in Manila”.
And that’s exactly what it turned out to be.
As was his wont, Frazier kept moving forward, hitting Ali with everything but the kitchen sink, while Ali danced around picking Frazier off with his precision jabs, and the odd hook.
But in the sixth round, Frazier caught Ali with two thundering blows to the head, a minute apart. For a lesser man than Ali, it was lights out. But because he was The Greatest, Ali fell back on the ropes both times, and safely saw out the round.
Frazier was no oil painting either, as Ali kept picking him off. By the 13th, Frazier could hardly see his eyeslids were so swollen, forcing referee Eddie Futch to call halt in between the 14th and 15th rounds to hand Ali the decision by a TKO.
The fight was both brutal and brilliant by both of them, two great gladiators.
Since then, as we all know, tragedy has struck Muhammad Ali. In 1984 he was officially diagnosed as suffering from Parkinson’s disease, but he was obviously ill well before that.
To see him now, just a shadow of his former sensational self as one of the greatest athletes of all-time, is destroying.
Smokin’ Joe died of liver cancer on November 7, 2011, aged 57, but he had played his part in boxing immortality.
George Foreman is still going strong, another super athlete. He retired in 1977, became a preacher, but the ring still beckoned, and he made a comeback in 1994 to knockout 27-year-old Michael Moorer.
Foreman became the oldest world heavyweight champion at 45, and the second oldest world champ in any division after Bernard Hopkins, who is the current world light heavy champion at 49.
Foreman was a successful entrepreneur as well, his George Foreman Grills sold over 100 million units worldwide.
In 1999 he sold the naming rights to the grill for $138 million, but he showed no vision when he named his five sons, among seven daughters.
Try George Jr, George III, George IV, George V, and George VI.
Must have been hell at the meal table.
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